Purdue Pharma will lay off 59 employees in Stamford, as part of its restructuring to eliminate a third of its research and development arm.

The job cuts at its Stamford headquarters, where it employs about 600 people, are part of the 100 positions that will be slashed across the company.

The pharmaceutical company, which markets prescription drugs like the painkiller Oxycontin, will now focus on acquiring or licensing medicines that are developed elsewhere, according to the Wall Street Journal. Purdue's R&D facility in Cranbury N.J., however, will remain open.

"Purdue is evolving from an organization that historically innovated from within, toward an organization that looks beyond its walls for new business opportunities," said Raul Damas, a Purdue spokesman. "Unfortunately, this requires downsizing our R&D organization, so we've taken every measure to ensure this process is handled appropriately, internally and externally."

The layoffs are expected to begin at the end of August, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Connecticut Department of Labor.

This move follows an industry trend that has seen large pharmaceutical companies divest their R&D operations in favor of licensing drugs from smaller biotech firms, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Earlier this year, Purdue laid off 60 employees at the Stamford headquarters, also part of streamlining efforts. In January, Mark Timney was appointed as the company's president and CEO, coming to Purdue from the helm of Merck, a developer of prescription drugs and vaccines. Changes in strategy and personnel are to be expected when a company gets new leadership, said Chris Bruhl, president and CEO of the Business Council of Fairfield County. Bruhl said he had been aware of the pending 59 job losses.

"As when any CEO comes in, there's a fundamental reassessment," Bruhl said. "So it's a normal process. Somewhere in this four-, five-, six-month period, external observers would start to see the results of the internal reassessment."

He added: "We'd be interested in helping these people who have lost their jobs to keep them in the local talent pool."